People With Hazardous Jobs
If you work at hazardous worksites or are deployed in the military, you may opt to bank your sperm, just in case of accidents or chemical exposures that could damage sperm or fertility.
Some people freeze their sperm if theyre going to be traveling to areas of the world with Zika, a virus that can be passed to someone else via semen.
Sperm Freezing Success Rates
A recent study shows that frozen sperm works just as well as fresh sperm for in vitro fertilization procedures.
When a frozen semen sample is thawed, around 5075% of the sperm survives. If the semen sample was high quality and healthy, this should still give you a good chance of achieving pregnancy with an insemination. Healthy semen samples have sperm counts ranging from 15 million to 200 million or more sperm per milliliter of semen, with 40% motility or higher. Semen samples with over 8 million total motile sperm count perform most effectively in IUI.
The number of sperm samples you should freeze depends on both your sperm health and your family planning goals. For example, if you are planning for intracytoplasmic sperm injection , a single ejaculate sample or about 4 vials of frozen sperm may suffice. But with IUI, where success rates are lower, 35 vials of sperm is recommended per pregnancy you hope to have. If you’re unsure about the amount of sperm you should freeze, it’s best to speak with a fertility specialist.
- Military personnel, especially before deployment. Learn more about sperm freezing for the military.
- Those considering a vasectomy who still want options.
- Anyone who wants peace of mind about their fertility.
While this list isn’t comprehensive, it highlights some of the primary reasons why someone would want to freeze their sperm. Sperm freezing provides you with more options, flexibility, and control over your fertility.
The 5 Fertility Foundations
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IVF by-passes most of your reproductive system to try and produce at least one embryo for you.
But it only really helps when the couples issues are related to not producing embryos i.e. the sperm and egg are not naturally meeting.
If the reason for not getting pregnant or staying pregnant is any other issue such as: Progesterone deficiency, implantation issues, egg or sperm quality issues, an over-active immune system or anything else not related to the egg or sperm meeting then IVF used alone may not be sufficient to help.
I believe that this results in the many failed IVF cycles we see reflected in the IVF statistics.
Even though IVF may work for some people the approach is not successful for many, and it may potentially carry other health risks too.
Restoring your fertility health can only be achieved naturally, based on the root of your health balance.
The great news is that you can take action on this and change it.
And the even better news is that there are just 5 key things that need to be in balance to restore health to anyones body.
During the last 21+ years of helping my clients get pregnant all over the world, Ive discovered what I call The 5 Fertility Foundations.
These foundations are an easy but effective way to restore general and fertility health to help you to get pregnant naturally or with IVF.
How to Use The 5 Fertility Foundations
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What Is Sperm Freezing
Men are able to freeze their sperm for use in their own future treatment or to donate to someone elses treatment. Donated sperm usually has to be quarantined for three or six months and screened for infections before it can be used by a recipient. The length of quarantine is dependent upon the type of screening tests that your clinic carries out.
- IVF using frozen sperm is just as successful as IVF using fresh sperm.
- There are no risks from using frozen sperm in treatment.
- Not all sperm survive the freezing and thawing process.
- You dont have to thaw and use all your sperm at once.
The Diy Crowd Is Revolutionizing Artificial Insemination
When Nellie Mead and Teresa Espinosa conceived their daughter, they did it without sex, a fertility clinic, or medical supervision. Instead, Espinosa injected a friends sperm into a menstrual cup she bought at a drugstore. She then inserted the cup into Meads vagina in their Spring Hill, Florida home. Aliena was born in July.
I was shocked when it worked, says Mead, 25, who had thought her only options were to have sex with a guy and that wasnt happening or to save thousands of dollars to buy sperm. That was until she uncovered a trove of at-home artificial insemination advice online. Mead devoured YouTube testimonials, where a search for home insemination yields more than 11,000 results .
Embracing the DIY ethos, Mead and Espinosa assembled a kit of store-bought tools over the ten months they tried to conceive. Items included an ovulation predictor kit, various sized syringes , menstrual cups intended to catch period blood, prenatal vitamins and herbs like Evening Primrose and Chasteberry, and Robitussin cough syrup to loosen cervical mucus and whisk sperm on their course.
Mead, who shaves the sides of her head and wears baseball caps, documented their attempts in a series of pregnant stud updates on YouTube, with Espinosa at her side. Their video announcing Meads pregnancy was watched more than 100,000 times, and now theyre selling a version of their kit on eBay.
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Maintain A Balanced Diet
Eat a healthy, balanced diet and be sure to stay hydrated. Consume a lot of good-quality fat and protein and stay away from sugars and junk food.
This one is important for both men and women. When you are trying to conceive, it is important to watch your waistline and eat a balanced diet.
People who are obese may have more trouble conceiving than those who are a healthy weight. And, the same holds true for people who are under weight. When you are trying to conceive, try to get as close to a healthy weight as possible.
Why Fresh Sperm Is Always Best
Scientists have the unique advantage of being able to look at sperm under a microscope.
It must be interesting to see so much movement in such a small space. But what they find is that not all of the movement is positive. Of the many millions of sperm ejaculated, they are not all winners. Some may even be dead before the journey has a chance to begin. Others may be deformed, having unusually shaped or multiple heads, or twitching.
Even in a perfectly healthy, fertile man, only about 20% of sperm will be viable.
Here is the thing about fresh sperm: Sperm have a natural life cycle. Older sperm decay, and as they do, they release substances that can harm younger, fresher sperm.
So, even if you have more sperm, it will be counterproductive if many of them are old. Not only are they already dying, but also they are going to bring others down with them.
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Diet Weight And Exercise
Eating a healthy, balanced diet and maintaining a healthy weight is essential for keeping your sperm in good condition.
The Eatwell Guide shows that to have a healthy diet you should:
- eat at least 5 portions of a variety of fruit and vegetables every day
- base meals on higher fibre starchy foods like potatoes, bread, rice or pasta
- include some dairy or dairy alternatives
- eat some beans, pulses, fish, eggs, meat and other protein
Being overweight may affect the quality and quantity of your sperm.
If you’re overweight and trying for a baby, you should try to lose weight by combining healthy eating with regular exercise.
What Happens To Stored Samples After My Death
When a man banks sperm, we advise him to obtain a court order that authorizes a spouse or family member to withdraw any remaining samples stored in our sperm bank after his death. Some deceased mens wives, fiancées or significant others may want to use stored sperm to create offspring with fertility treatment. You may wish to have your samples destroyed in the event of your death, or you may give a specific person the legal right to make decisions about your samples. Any further use of them would then be under the control of the person legally appointed by you.
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How Much Sperm Does It Take To Get You Pregnant
- Score4.4/5
How many sperm do you need to get pregnant? It takes just one sperm to fertilize a woman’s egg. Keep in mind, though, for each sperm that reaches the egg, there are millions that don’t. On average, each time men ejaculate they release nearly 100 million sperm.Read more
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How long does it take to get pregnant after sex? | Planned Parenthood Video
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How Many Samples Should I Freeze
We recommend freezing a minimum of two samples for storage before you have surgery and/or therapy. However, its your choice for how many samples you will freeze.
During your initial consultation, you should discuss your future goals and make a plan based on any medical treatments youre having and what you will need in the future, like how many children you hope to have. The number of samples needed for storage is different for each person. How many samples you may need in the future will also depend on the quality of your sperm after its thawed.
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What If I Move Out Of The Utah Area
We can ship semen samples to another clinic or storage facility where youre moving. You will need to fill out some paperwork so we can make sure your samples are secure and properly handled.
Even if you move out of Utah, we can still store your samples at University of Utah Health. We just need your billing address and permanent mailing address.
How Donor Sperm Is Used To Get You Pregnant
Donor sperm can be used for IUI or IVF, depending on medical necessity.
If intrauterine insemination is chosen, the womans ovaries and blood hormone levels are monitored closely to determine when she is ovulating. This predicts the optimal time for insemination. In some patients, medications are need to stimulate ovulation. At the appropriate time, a catheter that contains the donor sperm is inserted into the cervix, and the sperm is released. The patient then typically lies down for about 15 minutes after insemination. If in vitro fertilization is needed, donor sperm is used to inseminate the womans eggs, after the eggs are removed.
Your team at Park Avenue Fertility knows that together we can help you grow your family. For more information, or to schedule a consult, please do not hesitate to contact us.
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Finding A Sperm Donor
There are several places you can find a sperm donor, including:
- Fertility clinics
- Sperm banks
- Your personal connections
When looking at sperm donors found through a clinic or sperm bank, youll also hear terms like semi-open and anonymous donor arrangements. This refers to the ability to have contact between your future donor-conceived child and the donor.
The general advice these days favors semi-open arrangements because it allows at least one contact between the donor-conceived child and the sperm donor.
Completely anonymous donor arrangements are becoming less common, and are in fact illegal in some countries.
If you decide to use someone you knowalso known as a known donorbe aware that there are many legal and psychological intricacies involved.
There have been cases where known sperm donors later decided to sue and attempt to get parental rights, and there have been cases when women who have used a known sperm donor attempted to sue the donor for child support payments.
These issues have occurred even with contracts being signed before the donor insemination took place.
Consult with both a psychologist and a lawyer before you consider using someone you know as a sperm donor.
Get Health Conditions Under Control
Effectively managing chronic medical conditions, such as high blood pressure and diabetes, may improve a man’s chances of getting his partner pregnant, suggests The American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Other medical conditions, such as cystic fibrosis or varicoceles , may also affect male fertility, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In addition, some medications used to treat high blood pressure , depression and anxiety , pain , and an enlarged prostate , could have a negative influence on fertility. Supplemental testosterone can also decrease sperm production. Some chemotherapy drugs and radiation treatments for cancer can cause permanent infertility, according to the Mayo Clinic. A man should speak to his doctor about medication he is taking and whether it might interfere with his ability to father a child.
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How Long Does It Take To Get Pregnant
The amount of time it takes to get pregnant is different for each person, and can depend on a lot of things .
If youre fertile and having unprotected vaginal sex, theres a very good chance youll get pregnant within 1 year. About 85 out of 100 people who try to get pregnant succeed within 1 year. But everyones different for some people its much faster, while it may take longer for others.
If youve been trying to get pregnant for 6 months to a year with no luck, talk with your doctor, or visit your local Planned Parenthood health center to see if they can help and make sure everythings okay.
Sickle Cell And Thalassaemia
Sickle cell disease and thalassaemia are blood disorders you inherit through your family. If you are a carrier of sickle cell or thalassaemia, you can pass these conditions on to your baby.
These conditions affect haemoglobin, a part of the blood that carries oxygen around the body. People who have these conditions will need specialist care throughout their lives.
It is important to know whether your baby is at risk because babies with sickle cell disease can receive early treatment, including immunisations and antibiotics.
This, along with support from their parents, will help prevent serious illness and allow the child to live a healthier life.
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How Often Should A Couple Have Intercourse
Surprisingly, long periods of abstinence can decrease the quality of sperm. Couples should have intercourse at least two to three times a week during the fertile period. A couple has more chances for pregnancy if they have intercourse every one to two days during the fertile window, and a pregnancy is most likely if a couple has intercourse within the six-day time frame that ends on the day that an egg is released .
Sperm Storage The Steps In Brief
1) Find a sperm storage facility. Google sperm storage, sperm bank, or sperm donor along with your state or city.
2) Make an initial appointment and get tested for infectious diseases.
Most reputable locations will require testing for common STDs prior to storage. I was tested for:
HIV 1 & 2
HBsAG and HBcAB
Its a romantic first date. And, yes, I cleared like a Mormon taking a drug test.
Cost of initial consult: $100-150
Cost of STD lab panel: $150-200
3) Warm up your wrists and get busy. Six sessions per kid.
Think its one shot, one kill, macho man? Think again. Youre no Peter North, and even if you were, 50%+ of your sperm count is annihilated from the freezing process.
You should make six sperm deposits for each child youd like to have. It can take inseminations over eight months for a woman to get pregnant, although in vitro fertilization ups the chances somewhat at much higher cost, generally $9,000-12,000 per attempt.
Oh, and forget about abstaining for long periods of time, oddly enough.
For best results in storage/fertilization/impregnation, abstain from ejaculation for at least 48 hours but no more than four days before each session. More than four days and dead sperm cells begin to accumulate and cause trouble, as you need a certain ratio of live sperm to dead sperm per 1 cc of volume. I scheduled one deposit every fourth morning a la: Monday 10am, Friday 10am, Tuesday 10am.
Cost per sample frozen: $150-200
Cost per year: $300 600
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How Can You Tell If An Egg Has Been Fertilized
Some women may notice symptoms as early as 5 DPO, although they won’t know for certain that they are pregnant until much later. Early signs and symptoms include implantation bleeding or cramps, which can occur 56 days after the sperm fertilizes the egg. Other early symptoms include breast tenderness and mood changes.
Future Use And Success Rates
When ready to attempt pregnancy, the frozen semen specimens are thawed and a sperm analysis is done. The thawed specimen is used with assisted reproductive technology procedures such as intrauterine insemination or in vitro fertilization . Success rates vary based on age and fertility status of the female partner and on the quality of the pre-treatment specimen.
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Chance Of Precum Getting You Pregnant
Its estimated that 4 in 100 people will get pregnant when using the withdrawal method correctly. Even if a man withdraws and ejaculates away from his partners vagina or vulva area, there is still only an 18% chance for pregnancy to occur as opposed with 45%.This means females should use another birth control method after having sex so they dont accidentally conceive without wanting too!
Can You Insert Sperm At Home To Get Pregnant
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There are two types of artificial insemination that can be done at home: intracervical insemination , which involves putting sperm into the vagina, as would happen with intercourse. intrauterine insemination , which involves putting sperm directly into the uterus using a tube that goes through the cervix.Read more
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How to Inseminate at Home with Frozen Sperm and The Mosie Kit
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